Toppers Pizza to open Janesville store

JANESVILLE—Over the years, the corporate operations director for Toppers Pizza has been routinely asked when the Whitewater-based chain would open a store in Janesville.

The answer, Adam Oldenburg said Thursday, is late May or early June.

Toppers Pizza will open in the new strip center in the Kmart outlet near the intersection of Old Humes Road and Milton Avenue.

“There's definitely a high demand for our product in the Janesville area,” said Oldenburg, who oversees the company's 18 other corporately owned stores. “Many people come from Janesville to our Whitewater store, primarily for our house pizzas and Topperstix, the most mouth-watering cheesy goodness you'll ever have.”

Founded in 1991 in Whitewater, Toppers now has a combination of 53 corporate and franchise operations in 10 states.

Oldenburg said the company sets itself apart with pizzas that start with fresh, made-from-scratch dough, real Wisconsin cheese and finished with toppings such as French fried onions, oven-roasted tomatoes, mac 'n cheese, tater tots and fresh-cut vegetables.

Oldenburg said the store would be open from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily, and 80 percent of its orders are typically delivered.

“We deliver faster than fast because we have a culture of looking over shoulders so we can start an order before the ticket is complete,” he said. “Our drivers run the orders. It's all about speed and quality.”

Oldenburg said the Janesville store would employ about 35 people, depending on sales volume. About 20 of them will be delivery drivers, he said.

In 2013, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Toppers as one of the top 500 franchises in the United States. Nation's Restaurant News declared the brand as one of the 50 breakout chains of the year, and Toppers received a No. 58 spot in Pizza Today's top 100 pizza companies.